Last quarter of the NFL season….got your seatbelt on?

I would like to thank Major Kong for taking over my last blog post while I took a mini-vacation to NYC to see Christmas stuff with my girls and with a bunch of my friends and their girls. There were about 35 of us womenfolk, and fortunately the authorities did not need to get involved. This was planned last summer, so no, I didn’t purposely run away after the Texans lost…it was just fortuitous.

Took me a bit of time today to catch up on what has been going on, catch up with blog comments and whatnot. (Hilton Hotels thinks it is a great idea to make people pay $15 for internet. Strangely, at their lower-priced hotels, internet is thrown in for free, but at their expensive properties, even if you are a “Silver VIP” member, they still make you want to pay. I couldn’t figure out the benefits of being a Silver VIP other than you get to stand in a mammoth line at check-in that is just as long as the mammoth line at check-in that non-VIPs get. I’m not meaning to Peter King you too much, I just wanted to say to anyone that even half-way cares that loyalty programs that give you few discernible benefits are odd. For those who travel more than me, which ones do you think are better? Yes, that is a major digression but for regular readers, that shouldn’t be a surprise).

So this is what I know about the Texans on Tuesday, December 7, 2010 for an overdue Link Roundup Time Capsule:

Playoffs?! Playoffs?!!!

Though Gary Kubiak has plenty of detractors, but at least after the loss to the Eagles, he didn’t talk about being out of the playoffs. That’s what Rex Ryan did after a disappointing Week 15 loss to Atlanta last year: “We’re obviously out of the playoffs, and that’s unfortunate.”

So, Josh McDaniels gets fired for too many reasons to count. It’s the Smuckers jam rule: If don’t look the part of whatever job you have for reasons out of your control–age, gender, various immutable physical characteristics–you better be really really good at your job. And McDaniels was indisputably the opposite of good.

When Kubiak left the Bronco organization, many fans wanted him to stay and continued following what he was doing with the Texans. Some Denver fans believe that Kubiak was a good personality buffer for Mike Shanahan who could sometimes rub folks the wrong way.

Other Bronco fans just want real change. Not change back. They already experienced having an explosive offense with a terrible defense in Shanahan Srs days. We have enough issues here, so I’ll let Bronco fans deal with their own rebuilding.

For those inclined to want draft picks for an under contract Kubiak, that is a non-starter. As commenter Larry House pointed out on Twitter, after the Jon Gruden for draft picks trade, NFL rules were changed to prohibit those deals in the future.

Kubiak was repeatedly asked about these rumors today, and he wasn’t biting. I’m guessing if Kubiak eventually goes, he’d have plenty of people wanting to talk to him.

Pass Protection

I’ve linked to AOL FanHouse’s JJ Cooper’s stuff before. One of my favorite things that he does is focus on line play, and for a while, he’s been tracking sack totals. Not just the numbers, but who is responsible and how long did it take before the sack occurred. Check out his piece called, “O-Line ‘Em Up: Who’s Responsible for the Sacks, Week 12.” An unfortunate number of Texans on this list, with right tackle, Eric Winston near the top of the list.

JJ concedes that sometimes it is difficult to tell who is responsible for a sack but he tries to allow for that in his methodology. If you have any questions about that article, let me know and I will get an answer for you.

Which leads to the Ravens game coming up that will be a big test of the Texans against a very physical team. I can’t do any better than Alan Burge of the Houston Texans Examiner in discussing the Ravens test for the Texans.

Seems to me from the video that if Texans safety Bernard Pollard wanted to completely pollardize Gage, he could have hit him much harder than that from a running start. It’s not a simple tackle to make given the relative position of the receiver and the other defender who was also in on the play. He didn’t lead with his helmet, and he had to run a bit to even have a chance at a play.

More Me Time.

Melissa Jacobs of espnW and her own site, The Football Girl, asked me to do an interview on a variety of topics. Please read it if you are interested in what I have to say about myself blah blah blee and the Texans or ridiculously saying nice things about the Chargers before they stunk against the Raiders.

More You Time

In association with their “Take it to the House” Facebook page and the Blogger Fantasy League I’m participating in, P&G gave me a bunch of home and health products and told me to give them away to fans in whatever way I chose. So the first batch I took to the tailgates.

I showed up really early a few weeks ago and visited the Platinum and Yellow lots giving away stuff. I wanted to put together a video of fans doing commercials for the products they picked out.

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, we would ham up pretend commercials into the tape recorder and had big fun doing that. And I must confess that I found shooting these tailgate video pretty fun. Thanks to all who participated and left with P&G parting gifts.

Here’s the video with me in a rare on-video introductory cameo in full fan gear. Recognize anyone? If so, pass the video their way:

Now, you might be saying, “Hey Steph, we like free stuff too. Where’s my free stuff?” Well then, you have the opportunity to get free stuff from P&G from their Facebook page, including a trip to the Pro Bowl or the Super Bowl. (That Super Bowl contest is a good, easy to participate option–I am guessing that there are not that many winning entries submitted so far. And I think I saw some good Pro Bowl entry sorts of stuff from just in that video).

Unfortunately, my Team Vicks “For A Better Tomorrow” P&G Blogger Fantasy League team suffered a setback last week, falling from 2nd to 5th place. I need to win this week to have a chance at the playoffs. I need to do some waiver stuff due to injuries/matchup changes, so if you have any good suggestions given the available players and matchups this week, I need to get my waiver requests in by Wednesday night.

* Requested legal disclosure I’m sure you pretty much figured out: The P&G Blogger Fantasy League (BFL) is a group of 12 digital sports influencers competing on the NFL.com fantasy platform for the chance to win P&G product, a donation to a local charity, and a trip to Super Bowl XLV, all furnished by P&G. The NFL Entities have not offered or sponsored the sweepstakes in any way.

So lots of topics here people. Get after it. (And note that I finally caught up with your comments in the previous post–read that if this blog post isn’t already enough reading).